Product Description"It was all so honest, before the end of our collective innocence. Top Forty jocks screamed and yelled and sounded mightier than God on millions of transistor radios. But on FM radio it was all spun out for only you. On a golden web by a master weaver driven by fifty thousand magical watts of crystal clear power . . . before the days of trashy, hedonistic dumbspeak and disposable three-minute ditties . . . in the days where rock lived at many addresses in many cities."–from FM

As a young man, Richard Neer dreamed of landing a job at WNEW in New York–one of the revolutionary FM stations across the country that were changing the face of radio by rejecting strict formatting and letting disc jockeys play whatever they wanted. He felt that when he got there, he’d have made the big time. Little did he know he’d have shaped rock history as well.

FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio chronicles the birth, growth, and death of free-form rock-and-roll radio through the stories of the movement’s flagship stations. In the late sixties and early seventies–at stations like KSAN in San Francisco, WBCN in Boston, WMMR in Philadelphia, KMET in Los Angeles, WNEW, and others–disc jockeys became the gatekeepers, critics, and gurus of new music. Jocks like Scott Muni, Vin Scelsa, Jonathan Schwartz, and Neer developed loyal followings and had incredible influence on their listeners and on the early careers of artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Genesis, the Cars, and many others.

Full of fascinating firsthand stories, FM documents the commodification of an iconoclastic phenomenon, revealing how counterculture was coopted and consumed by the mainstream. Richard Neer was an eyewitness to, and participant in, this history. FM is the tale of his exhilarating ride.

When Rock Lived
If you grew up like I did in the 1970s greater New York metro area, you will want to read Richard Neer's memoir of life at WNEW-FM during its hard-rock heyday just for the blasts of nostalgic recognition. Radio handles like "Rosko", "Scottso", and "The Nightbird" become vivid personalities, and you are reconnected to a time when people anxiously awaited the latest Moody Blues LP. But even without such attachments going in, you will find "FM" a pretty absorbing read on many levels.

First, there's the gossipy behind-the-scenes aspect, of discovering who didn't get along with whom among a group of high-profile radio disc jockeys to whom the big shots of the day, like Led Zeppelin and Elton John, came a-calling. They called WNEW the place "where rock lives" for a reason.

Then there's the aspect of WNEW-FM's place as an oasis of free-form radio while the medium was changing all around them, a period that ran roughly from just before Neer's arrival as a weekend jock in 1971 to the murder of John Lennon in 1980. The money still came in for a while after that, but as Neer writes, the dream was over.

Finally, there's the fact Neer is a sensible, candid observer of all around him, who can describe lovingly and at some length everything from his first broadcasting experience on college radio to his initial trepidation when cornered by Jonathan Schwartz, a velvet-throated rock-jock mainstay at the time. With a voice like that, Neer thought, Schwartz had to be gay.

"I would learn later that my fears were completely unfounded, and that Jonno went through women like [fellow WNEW legend Scott] Muni went through scotch."

I suspect Neer and Schwartz aren't on speaking terms today, not for that so much as a hilarious anecdote he shares about Schwartz, two willing bedmates, and Schwartz's idea of mood music, his own pre-recorded voice on the radio. But Neer's loss of a Christmas card is our gain.

It's like that the whole way through, Neer explaining the unsavory as well as the heroic aspects of WNEW's rise to fame. Sex and drugs, yes, though more the former than the latter, unless ego counts as a drug. That the jocks had in spades. When Alison Steele a.k.a. "The Nightbird", sensed a new female jock WNEW had hired was a threat to her domain, she got the woman fired. Schwartz eschewed the disk jockey term for one he coined himself: "Jocque du disques". For a lot of jocks, the term "free-form" meant playing whatever they wanted to, and sneering anytime the word "Arbitron" came up.

They're a great bunch all the same. Neer makes clear his overall admiration for their varying personalities and what they did. It's hard not to envy Neer his "Almost-Famous" style proximity to the entire gang and the world they represented, a world that arose greenfield-like in the late 1960s from the underused hinterlands of the FM dial just as rock music became polytonal, expansive and willfully reckless. Neer even fills in the details of the wider rock/FM scene without losing his focus on WNEW.

He takes sidetrips to California, where free-form programming was taken even more seriously and crashed even more spectacularly than in New York. The last 100 pages deal with WNEW after free-form's heyday ended, and are far less vital reading than the 1971-81 section, as new wave and grunge began pushing hard rock into the oldies circuit.

Draggy or not, Neer finds a way to bring it all together, not in such a way as to draw in the uninitiated (his prose is solid but never immersive) but to reward the curious. Radio lovers will enjoy this deep dive into a world, still a part of many living memories, that feels a million miles away.

Good
This is a good book if you don't know what free-form, FM radio was about.

Richard Neer describes how free-form began on both coasts around 1967. This was a buissness proposition, and an extreamely liberating one. Rock was blooming, so was the couterculture. The right people and the right money was in the right place at the rihght time. Slow but sure and painful, it all fell apart.

The book is inharently depressing, because it talks about the inevitable decline of freeform, step by demographic consulting step.
An interesting read if you don't know a lot about this long ago phonomanon but are interested.

But this is not a book for people who know the story, or musicheads. Some bands are mentioned, but there are no set lists,and no detail about the more obscure music played. I would have liked to have known what each DJ did--what was a New York free form station like on a rainy afternoon, August, 1969. What songs might have been played. How about Januray 1971, snowing in the middle of the night.
The book has details about time and place, but does not go far enough to PUT YOU THERE.

When music people buy a book like this, one hope is they are hipped to new music as a bi-product of the narrative. That does not happen.

The whole thing is a downer.

BUT: the form lives. There isWFMU in New Jersey, USA. They are on the web. I don't work for them, they are non profit. I have no vested interest plugging them. But they are the only freeform stationleft. Obviously, this is not the 60s, and so the implications are different.

But the DJs have total freedom to play ANYTHING and usually do. If anything, they are freer than the 60s DJs were. They obviously have more music to choose from, and wedging a Pat Boone song into a rock set does not have the social overtones it would have in 1970. If you like this idea, check FMU out.

Hum. Maybe there is a happy ending.

Recommended reading
Recommended Reading:FM - The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio - by Richard Neer

I finally got around to this one seven years after the initial publication.

Anyone who was around in the late '60s/early '70s in the New York area and fondly remembers the jump from Top 40 AM (WABC 77) to progressive/album oriented/free form rock pioneered by WNEW-FM (102.7) will want to read this one.Not that it has a happy ending.Or middle one for that fact.

Richard Neer (who now lives on as a sports talk host via an audience call in format on NYC's WFAN - 66) joined WNEW-FM in '71 and was there for the good (great), the bad and the ugly.

Much of what I retain in vinyl and much of what I retain in my head musically has a direct correlation to what Neer, Scott Muni, Roscoe, Jonathan Schwartz, Alison Steele, Dave Herman, Dennis Elsas, Pete Fornatale, Zacherle, Vin Scelsa and the others in the glory days of NEW were playing.

But in hindsight, it was a relatively short life span.Format changes along with a revolving door of corporate and program managers eventually put the whole concept and later the whole station in deep freeze.

Even though Neer interweaves correlating progress (or lack of) at stations in major markets like Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angles, and San Francisco, his focus naturally is on the New York City market.As such, much of the impact (IMO) would be lost on anyone who didn't live through these times in NY.

While not one of those tell-all slam books, there are some interesting stories and some surprising conflicts in personality revealed.The most moving moment revolves around the events at the station the night John Lennon was murdered.

Overall, an important book to revisit for the music and characters and finally the sad realization of something which is nevermore.

Paul Pearson

Ah, Those Were the Days...
I lived through the era recalled by Mr. Neer in this book. As such, I especially enjoyed his asides regarding Zacherle (a personal favorite), Alison Steele, and Scott Muni. His thoughtful, low-key manner (which these days provides a welcome respite from the styles of most of his all-sports WFAN colleagues) translates well to book form. For a 350-plus page volume, this provided a surprisingly breezy and easy read. That said, I wouldn't recommend this tome to those who didn't live in the NYC area during the 70's, or are too young to recall the players involved here. But for those who lived it, this is an informative and welcome trip back to a time when most FM radio stations were infinitely more enjoyable (for the thoughtful music lover) than the unmitigated garbage that resides on that band today.

Personal and meandering, but informative
The most important thing to know before starting this book is that it is not meant to be a historical document of the free-form radio era.A lot of the book has the feel of a man setting his memories to paper before they fade.Fortunately Neer has more interesting memories than most.

All in all, FM is a clear window into the workings of WNEW in New York during the formative years of rock radio.Of particular interest to listeners during that time, Neer brings you into the restricted access world of radio, devulging the conflicts and hijinks that result on the battlefront between air personality and management.

Although his stories of internal WNEW stife and rock stars in their formative years are facinating, any time the subject strays to other subjects, such as other free-form stations of the era, the narrative loses alot of the viceral energy of his personal experiences.Also, Neer will often follow stories to thier conclusion, jumping decades at a time and then back, leaving one very confused as to when a perticular event is happening.

Despite the flaws, FM is still an interesting read and while it fails to give a comprehensive view of free-form radio, the warm and often humorous radio recolections are well worth the purchace price.
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Product DescriptionChapters: Islamic Economic Jurisprudence. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 43. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Steven or Miami Steve. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin, and as an actor in the television drama The Sopranos, in which he played Silvio Dante. Little Steven was also in in a band called "Little Steven and The Disciples of Soul". Van Zandt, an Italian American, was born as Steven Lento in Winthrop, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Lento, remarried when he was young and Steven took the last name of his stepfather, William Van Zandt. The family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jersey when he was seven. Actor/playwright/producer Billy Van Zandt is Steven Van Zandt's half brother. Van Zandt then grew up in the Jersey Shore music scene, and was an early friend and pre-E Street bandmate of Springsteen. In the early seventies, he was a journeyman guitarist (working as a sideman for The Dovells) as well as a founding member of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes and several of Bruce Springsteen's early bands. In 1975, during the recording sessions for Born to Run, Springsteen - at a loss (according to author Dave Marsh in the Springsteen biography Born To Run) for ideas on how to arrange the horn part for "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" - called on Van Zandt and his encyclopedic knowledge of soul music for help with the arrangement. In the Wings for Wheels Documentary, Springsteen revealed that Van Zandt was partially responsible for the signature guitar line in Born to Run; "Arguably Steve's greatest contribution t...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=249731 ... Read more

Product DescriptionPurchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Jon Bon Jovi, Max Weinberg, Steven Van Zandt, the Miami Horns, Southside Johnny, Patti Scialfa, Ernest Carter, Ed Manion, Richie Rosenberg, Soozie Tyrell, Mark Pender, Bobby Bandiera, David Hayes, Garry Tallent, Stan Harrison. Excerpt:Southside Johnny Bandiera performing in Amsterdam in 2006 Bobby Bandiera (born 26 October 1952) is an American rock guitarist and singer known in the Jersey Shore sound world. Biography Bandiera was originally in a band called Holme from Orange, New Jersey . They debuted in 1970, and were the house band for years at Dodd's in West Orange, New Jersey and D'Jais in Belmar, New Jersey , where Bandiera still makes occasional appearances. A longtime fixture of the Jersey Shore sound , Bandiera's appearances with local legends Cats on a Smooth Surface date back to the early 1980s and clubs such as The Stone Pony , when Bruce Springsteen would jump onstage with them on Sunday nights. Bandiera was considered for the guitarist position in the E Street Band for the Born in the U.S.A. Tour in 1984 when Steve Van Zandt left the band, but this position went to Nils Lofgren . In 1985, Bandiera replaced Billy Rush as guitarist for Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes , a position he holds to this day. Bandiera has released three solo albums, though they have not been successful, but this is only because of a lack of distribution sources. Bandiera also was a fixture of Springsteen's fabled Asbury Park holiday shows of the early 2000s. He also does studio musician work and has appeared on albums by Cyndi Lauper, Patti Scalfa and others. His most famous song is "C'mon Caroline" which he co-wrote with Bob Burger, another very talented Jersey shore musician. In the mid 1990's, Bandiera and Southside Johnny made a number of acclaimed shows as a duo. He has also play... ... Read more

Product DescriptionCommentary (music and lyrics not included).Chapters: Born in the U.s.a., the River, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Greatest Hits, Men Without Women, Hearts of Stone, Welcome to the Neighborhood, Shelter, Voice of America, Freedom - No Compromise, Revolution. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 67. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. His popular and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound. While the predecessor, the dark and acoustic Nebraska featured songs of pessimism and isolation, Born in the U.S.A.'s lyrics expressed signs of hope in the daily fight of the standard American in following the American Dream, a new feeling complemented by synthesized arrangements and a pop-flavored, radio-oriented sound that helped Springsteen to extend his popularity and appeal to mainstream audiences. The album was supported by an enormous commercial campaign that created several hit singles, as well as remixes and music videos. Born in the U.S.A. was the best-selling album of 1985 in the United States (and also Springsteen's most successful album ever). The album produced a record-tying string of seven Top 10 singles (the most for an album in history tied with Michael Jackson's Thriller and Janet Jackson's Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814) and also a worldwide concert tour (the two-year Born in the U.S.A. Tour) that was a success. Apart from this hype, the album was lauded by most critics and is often considered Springsteen's magnum opus along with his 1975 breakthrough, Born to Run. The title track is often misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem. Its cover (a close-up of a rear Springsteen in front of an American flag, as he was photographed by Ann...http://booksllc.net/?id=67583 ... Read more

Product DescriptionHigh Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Steven Van Zandt (born November 22, 1950) is an American musician, songwriter, arranger, record producer, actor, and radio disc jockey, who frequently goes by the stage names Little Stevenor Miami Steve. He is best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, in which he plays guitar and mandolin, and as an actor in the television drama The Sopranos, in which he played Silvio Dante. Van Zandt, an Italian American,was born as Steven Lento in Winthrop, Massachusetts. His mother, Mary Lento, remarried when he was young and Steven took the last name of his stepfather, William Van Zandt. The family moved from Massachusetts to Middletown Township, New Jerseywhen he was seven. ... Read more